Alright I'm done responding to anything about the roleplay specifically. Arguing about it isn't gonna get me nowhere other than another fifty paragraphs. I'm just gonna give something I should have a long time ago and that's two things. My best and why I know that this PK is invalid.
I know this PK is invalid and from the Character PK Criteria, I can say that. I am first going to preface this as to why I harped on how the death was handled and that was to paint a picture of how unsportsmanlike and rushed these people think about how they roleplay. It is that mentality which drives their reason for Ed to be PKed and at the same time barely care about the entire thing cause to them, it was just another body to the meat grinder that is most HL2RP servers.
So as I said before, I know this PK to be invalid from one simple statement. "We strongly encourage keeping PKs as a last resort for all players. This applies to all sides of the server. Consider your fellow players and aim for creative resolutions to conflict." I was never taken in for consideration, nor was it their last resort as they say, nor was it a creative resolution. You cannot tell me that these guys didn't have another option or that they never that they had a chance to try something to deter Ed from doing what he was doing. A simple masked beating of Ed would have had him stopped but, rather than do that, they escalated things right at the end rather than over the course of the days. I wasn't considered, how I felt like the story coulda gone, how the narrative could have unweaved. That is gone. The solution was death. When there were a number of options that could have been taken that was both fulfilling to the players without ending one's story because a weak and boring reason as Being a Rat. I know what the Criteria say about being a rat but I would to point to a word that is in that sentence. And it is the word May. "However, we can outline the most common and general reasons that may put your character at risk of a PK." It's not shall, it's not will. It's May. And that is a very important word to this whole thing. Ed didn't have to die. Ed could have been taken hostage, Ed could have been kidnapped. Ed could have been questioned further. But they wanted to rush the roleplay and rush they did. I cannot imagine how these guys would do if they were in my shoes considering how fast that kill was. All of 5 minutes. 7 at most. It was horrible. And trying to get a pity prize of getting to relive it but with slightly better roleplay which should have been the first time is... I spit at it.
The last part of the criteria I would like to quote is this, "all PKs must be proportionate and follow the concept of 'Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth'. They must serve a purpose. Major, unwarranted escalations in conflict resulting in character death." Ed never escalated things. It was always them, they were always escalating things. They tried to get Ed beat. They tried to get Ed arrested. They tried to get Dutch's Diner shut down. They tried to threaten Ed. Ed was always reacting to these things, sometimes not greatly but you cannot tell me that what Ed did was as bad as them. Everything he did was the same thing he did to them and even then by the end, he stopped escalating things. And they tried to just push him into doing it again by harassing him which to be honest, it feels more like bad faith roleplay trying to guide the situation into Ed doing something that leads into him dying. Especially if you consider how honest Ed was towards them. There was never a moment he lied. But they're gonna disregard that so they can keep accusing Ed of shit. If this is how they want to act about a PK, nonchalant and unable to pay attention or provide an adequate reason as to the why other than, he was a rat and that might get them killed when, if you kill him, then there's a most definite chance you will. I will not reiterate what I said on that matter. There wasn't any thought put into the PK other than we want to kill someone who ratted. It isn't very conductive to the roleplay environment and disregards all the measures to put into the criteria to make a death feel like it was supposed to be. And no matter their intentions, how this was done was awful.
I may not get Ed back, I may have had to watch people make fun of me over and over again in the discord server and telling me there ain't no way. But I know I have tried and done my best and no one can take that away from me.